Wrestler of the Year: Wolfgang Fiasconaro ends on a high note for Windham

The heavyweight wrestler won the State Open in his junior season, and came back even better as a senior. He compiled a 41-3 record, won the Class S state title and won another State Open title, while leading the Whippets to a second-place finish as a team. For those reasons, Fiasconaro is the All-Bulletin wrestler of the year.

Windham coach Pat Risley noticed Wolfgang Fiasconaro’s talent as a middle-school wrestler, but before Fiasconaro ever took the mat at the high school level, he injured his right shoulder so badly that he required reconstructive surgery.

“With the injuries he sustained his freshman and sophomore years we were a little concerned whether he ever would come back and be healthy, get in a Windham uniform,” Risley said.

Fiasconaro finally made his debut for the Whippets as a junior and Risley remembers that match.

“He pinned the kid pretty quickly and looked strong,” Risley said. “It was quite a relief to see him compete. From that moment on, I knew he was going to have a good shortened career, but a good career.”

Good might be an understatement. The heavyweight wrestler won the State Open in his junior season, and came back even better as a senior. He compiled a 41-3 record, won the Class S state title and won another State Open title, while leading the Whippets to a second-place finish as a team. For those reasons, Fiasconaro is the All-Bulletin wrestler of the year.

“He got a lot stronger mentally (in the last year),” Risley said. “His first year back, he was really concerned about his injury — his repaired shoulder because he had surgery done on it. I don’t believe he thought about it as much this year. He kind of forgot about the injury a little bit and just started to wrestle because he is a really aggressive kid. He knows how to be physical in a match. That is really his strong point. Once he was able to block that fear out, he was able to become more physical and dominant.”

Fiasconaro didn’t do any of it in the conventional heavyweight manner, either. His style mimicked that of someone much smaller, but Fiasconaro was often the smaller wrestler in his matches. One of the key aspects to his style was his leg riding.

“Riding legs is my main thing, because really no heavyweight rides legs,” he said. “Really, what you normally see is 190 (pounds) and down rides legs and mostly 120 to 140. So, I tried to take that and put it in my style and usually it works.”

Fiasconaro comes from a strong pedigree of wrestlers. His father, James, was a teammate of Risley’s on Windham High’s first state championship team in 1983. James Fiasconaro and Risley each placed second in their respective divisions in Class L.

Wolfgang’s brother, James Giovanni Fiasconaro, struggled with injuries much like Wolfgang, but Risley said he had enormous heart. Neither wrestler won a title, or got his name on the wall at Windham High School. It’s something that drove Wolfgang, especially during his freshman and sophomore seasons, when he was injured and “depressed.”

Page 2 of 2 - “I wanted to do it for (my dad) and my brother,” Wolfgang said. “My brother was a thrower and he always had good matches, but he never made it on the wall so I wanted to do it for them.”